Chapter 58
#58화 Phantom Thief Dauphin (2) - Warning Letter
─Did you hear? It’s been happening in Baron Pavelo’s domain too!
─Happening? What is?
─The righteous thief! The righteous thief! Apparently, the sons there had a horribly dirty reputation with women and did all sorts of filthy things to the young ladies in the territory, but every last one of them was kidnapped and displayed right in the middle of the town square! And they were stripped of all their property too!
─That’s amazing! They must have had tight protection too—how on earth did they do it?
─Hey, have you heard? The Aphrim Trading Company got cleaned out!
─That wicked bastard got taken down? A trading company in name only—it’s practically half a bandit gang!
─Hahaha! Even a half-bandit outfit can’t beat the real righteous thief, can it?
─Geez, what a fearless man. Aren’t they scared of what comes later?
─You mean Baron Tosrof. He was originally famous for treating his serfs harshly, but these days he’s suddenly started treating them well.
─Huh? What wind blew that in?
─He’s been going around saying things like, “I realized serfs are precious people,” but who would believe that? Everyone says he’s just backing off on his own because of that righteous thief.
─I thought he was just a bandit. Watching one thief change things this much is ridiculous. Maybe that title of righteous thief isn’t completely nonsense after all.
─Ha! Because of that thief bastard, we haven’t been able to live in peace lately!
─Was he even really a thief in the first place? It doesn’t make sense for the whole country to be so helpless against just one man!
─That’s true too. Maybe it’s a huge organization operating under one person’s banner.
─It’s strange that he only operates in Count Sarno’s territory. Could it be a group deliberately sent from somewhere else?
─Where will he head next? It’d be nice if he came here quickly!
─Don’t worry! Going by the order, it’s already decided—the next stop is Levruk!
─I just hope he wipes out all the rotten nobles!
─Ahhh, Dauphin! Dauphin! Please save us!
***
The Sarno count family’s guard force was divided into three categories: platoons, companies, and battalions.
In the count family’s directly controlled territories, in areas that were not very large, guard platoons of ten to twenty men were stationed, with the platoon leader serving as the person in charge.
In Sarno, such territories were grouped and managed by region, and the platoon leaders in each area took orders from the company commander.
There was only one battalion commander in Sarno’s main house, and he oversaw all of the count family’s guard forces.
Unlike the other guard companies, which had to manage nearby village platoons in addition to the territory where their company headquarters was located, the Levruk Company was a special case that had no involvement with any other village and protected only one city.
That was because the city was so huge and had such a large population that they’d dumped a ton of personnel on it, telling them not to worry about other villages and to manage only Levruk properly.
And now, at this very moment.
A strange heat was rising from the company headquarters in Levruk’s central district.
“I assume everyone knows about the thief making such a stir lately.”
At the company commander’s words, the eyes of the platoon leaders gathered in the meeting room changed in all sorts of ways.
If they had been feelings of duty and justice at capturing a notorious criminal, Dalia’s own heart in that room would have been much more at ease, but unfortunately the emotions that surfaced in the platoon leaders’ eyes were nothing like that.
They were closer to the eyes of someone who has found a very thick wallet lying on the ground.
Urgency to grab it quickly, caution over whether someone else might get it first, and even greed they couldn’t hide.
No matter how you looked at it, those were not emotions a guard force protecting a city should be showing, but the company commander seemed pleased by them as he went on.
“The thief ‘Dauphin.’ This arrogant bastard doesn’t even seem to care about hiding his route. Starting with Baron Belmor’s territory, where he first appeared, he’s been raiding neighboring territories in sequence. Unless he suddenly changes his pattern, headquarters predicts he’ll start operating in our Levruk within the next few days. Do you understand what that means?”
At the company commander’s question, one of the platoon leaders answered with a grin.
“It means a fattened pig is running straight into the hunting grounds without any fear.”
“Exactly!”
Bang!
The company commander slammed the table with his fist in excitement and continued.
“Among the territories Dauphin swept through, there were plenty that were managed by other companies. But those idiot bastards couldn’t even catch a single thief and ended up humiliating themselves. If we catch him in this situation, we’ll be able to declare that our Levruk Company is the best guard force! The count will surely give us a huge reward!”
Wooooo!
Without anyone leading the way, cheers erupted all at once from the mouths of the platoon leaders.
At the same time, they kept sneaking glances at the platoon leaders beside them, as if wary that another platoon might snatch that golden pig before their own did.
Dalia suppressed a sigh and raised her hand.
The company commander, who had been smiling, realized that the one asking to speak was Dalia and his expression hardened slightly, but he soon nodded.
“What is it, Platoon Leader of the 8th Platoon?”
“Catching the thief is a given, but I’d like to point out that being too careless is not a good idea.”
The lively atmosphere cooled as if cold water had been poured over it.
The company commander also looked plainly displeased, but Dalia thought she still had to say what needed to be said.
“We don’t know his exact identity, his level of skill, or what force is behind him. More importantly, he has clear results to his name. If it were a guard force from an entirely different territory, that would be one thing, but even guard soldiers from the same count family as us have lost him. In a situation like this, if we move with the mindset that ‘capturing him is only natural,’ we could end up making a mistake—”
“Ah, enough. Stop there.”
The company commander waved his hand in a motion full of irritation.
“So what you’re saying is don’t let our guard down, right? Did you really have to stretch that short point out into such a long explanation?”
That was because if she just said it plainly without a proper reason, they wouldn’t listen.
Dalia muttered that inwardly, but she didn’t say it aloud. After all, the other party didn’t seem interested in listening anyway.
“Of course, letting our guard down is bad. I know what you want to say. But right now, aren’t we all in the middle of getting pumped up together to catch that vicious criminal? Do you really have to say something like that at a time like this and drag everyone’s enthusiasm down? Even if you don’t go out of your way to point it out like you’re so clever, the friends here all know that much and are the kind who’ll take care of it just fine on their own.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Tsk. Anyway, everyone, keep your vigilance high. Increase the night patrol personnel significantly, remember to assign dedicated guards to the buildings where important figures are staying, and I trust you’ll handle it well.”
The operational meeting continued after that, but Dalia was never given a chance to speak.
Suppressing the mocking looks from the other platoon leaders, Dalia quietly stayed in her seat.
***
The soldiers of the 8th Platoon all blinked.
That was because the guard-zone allocation handed down from above was that ridiculous.
There were a total of ten platoons assigned to the Levruk Company.
Of those, nine were assigned to the upper-class district, which took up about one-fourth of Levruk’s total area.
And the remaining three-fourths were assigned to just one platoon: Dalia’s 8th Platoon.
The area they had to cover was three times larger, yet the manpower was one-ninth that amount—a deployment so absurd it made you question your own eyes.
“Sorry. I tried to get it changed somehow, but I failed.”
Dalia felt she had no face to show her subordinates.
Originally, she and her platoon members maintained public order by patrolling even the areas people seldom went to, but that was only after covering their assigned zone and moving on if they still had spare time.
Meaning that if they were short on time or manpower, they could reduce patrols depending on the situation.
But this time, nearly 70 to 80 percent of Levruk had been handed over as their assigned area.
Rather than ‘go if we can’ like before, the number of places they had to patrol without exception had increased drastically.
If the 8th Platoon alone were to handle this vast area, every platoon member would have to move from morning until late at night every single day, without even a holiday.
And they would have to do it while waiting for an end with no clear date, an end called ‘until we catch Dauphin,’ which might come at any time or never at all.
Dalia protested to the company commander, but the answer she got was truly outrageous.
「This is a matter of Levruk’s honor, and of the Sarno count family’s honor as well. As soldiers of Sarno, isn’t it only natural to show a little spirit of sacrifice?」
The company commander claimed it was a reorganization to make sure Dauphin would be caught for certain, but it was painfully obvious that this was some kind of retaliatory personnel move.
Dalia could endure being the one to receive criticism or ridicule, but thinking that her subordinates were suffering because of her made it hard to suppress her guilt.
Seeing Dalia lower her head, the members of the 8th Platoon exchanged looks one after another.
The adjutant spoke first.
“Lift your head, Captain. It isn’t your fault, so why are you apologizing?”
The other members chimed in as well.
“It isn’t that different, anyway. That area was one nobody but us ever bothered to look after, wasn’t it?”
“If anything, isn’t this better? I was getting weirdly annoyed having to do other people’s jobs just because we were taking care of their territory too. Now we’re just doing our own work ourselves, right?”
“Besides, rather than squeezing through those cramped noble streets where fancy carriages and the like are always passing by, it’s more comfortable to run around in a wide-open place.”
“Yeah, Captain! That company commander bastard is the one in the wrong, so why are you apologizing?”
“Hey, this is company headquarters. Is it okay to curse at the company commander here?”
“Damn it, people even bad-mouth the count when there’s nobody around, so what’s a company commander worth?”
“Honestly, the company commander only struts around in front of us. He’d grovel even before the attendants of the main house, let alone the knights attached to it.”
“What about the battalion commander? Since he’s the one leading the guard force, would he be on the same level as the knight commander who leads the knight order?”
“Eh, a guard force that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can join can’t be the same as a knight order that only nobles can enter, can it? The battalion commander would probably be treated about the same as an ordinary knight.”
At first they had clearly been trying to comfort Dalia, but before long the subordinates had started rattling on about the difference in skill and treatment between the guard force and the knight order, and the adjutant let out a deep sigh.
“Anyway, these bastards can’t stay serious about anything….”
“Haha.”
The soldiers were so undisciplined they looked as though a gust of wind might blow them away, but that very lightheartedness brought a smile back to Dalia’s gloomy lips.
Scratching the back of his head, the adjutant said to Dalia.
“But that Dauphin guy—do you really think he’ll come? Honestly, if I were him, I wouldn’t want to set foot in a place swarming with so many guards. I mean, wouldn’t he just check the situation and then run?”
“Well, maybe. That’s possible.”
After all, he was a thief with little regard for fair play.
If the situation turned against him, it wouldn’t be strange at all for him to tuck his tail and run.
Dalia’s guess was shattered exactly one day later.
The thief Dauphin neither ran nor hid.
No, he had even gone further, boldly drawing public attention with things he had not done in the previous territory.
A building owned by a certain merchant company in the upper-class district.
Because on that enormous wall, he had left a message in huge letters.
「Let me say this to the unscrupulous merchant I do not particularly esteem.
Henri Montbork, resident of the Montbork Merchant Company.
I know that you deceived farmers who cannot even read properly, buying up the grain they had grown through blood and sweat at rock-bottom prices.
Your warehouses are full of sacks of grain, yet the farmers who made it possible are still enduring hunger day after day. How can that be anything but unreasonable?
It is not too late yet, so apologize to all the farmers you have harmed and pay them a proper price.
If you do not heed this warning until the sun and the moon have each exchanged places twice, then I shall personally return the price to the owners, with interest.
Please make a wise choice.
-Phantom Thief Dauphin-」
There was no doubt that this was a declaration of war.